KISMETIC SURGERY?

Category: Trainspotting News | Posted by:adminArticle Date: August 22, 1996 | Publication: Evening Standard (London) | Author: EDINBURGH FESTIVALPublication/Article Link:
THE story was too good to be true. Rumour whipped around the Assembly Rooms on Sunday that Gerry Butler, who plays the lead role of Renton in the stage version of Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh's obliterary tale of drink, drugs and dissipation, had turned up at the venue too intoxicated to perform.

Soon it was claimed that Butler had been playing in a band earlier in the day at the Fringe Sunday celebrations in Holyrood Park, and had been so drunkenly abusive to the crowd that the police had pulled the plug on the gig.

Was this life imitating art, or just a case of a performer immersing himself thoroughly in his role? The truth is more prosaic. 'He's got bronchitis,' said a spokeswoman for Trainspotting. 'He's really not very well at all.'